


Family Dynamics

by MissBrainProblems



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-07 12:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21458149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissBrainProblems/pseuds/MissBrainProblems
Summary: Prototype for a potential long-form fic. Annette triggered sixteen years ago, when members of Lustrum's gang attempted to make her show "proof of loyalty" to Lustrum's cause by killing Danny; instead, Annette triggered with a bud from Lustrum, allowing her to draw in electrical charge from the ambient environment, electronic devices, and even living creatures, before discharging it in powerful ways. Using her newfound powers, she saved both herself and her future husband from Lustrum's thugs, and escaped to join the Protectorate. After helping to defeat Lustrum, Annette - now known as Dynamic to the public at large - became a devoted member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, eventually rising to the position of team captain; simultaneously, she worked hard at home alongside Danny to help raise their young daughter. At the age of fifteen, Taylor Hebert manages to have not one, but two living parents, a famous hero included amongst them; unfortunately for the Hebert family, life always finds ways to hurt people, no matter how enviable their circumstances might seem.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

I didn't understand what I had been doing wrong. I had been doing everything, _everything_ that I could have in order to include myself in Taylor's life. Being the leader of the Protectorate in one of the top ten cape population cities in America was both literally and metaphorically a full time job, but I did _still_ everything that I could to make sure that I had the time to be there for Taylor. I drove her to Arcadia in the mornings. I took a break in the middle of work so that I could have dinner with her and Danny. I had seen her off to summer camp, and I had been there when she came back. Maybe I wasn't there at night when she went to bed, I did all of those other things, and I did more, because I wanted to be a mom for my daughter on top of being a hero for Brockton Bay. And yet, every time that I had seen Taylor recently then, she had looked upset at me, had looked _angry_ at me, and had _refused_ to tell me what was wrong; the pettier half of me was particularly upset that she seemed to dote on and adore Danny even as she reflexively rejected me at all times, and I felt no small amount of spite toward my husband for that.

And so, maybe I had ended up tightening the cuffs on the Empire thug on his side in front of me a little bit too tight. Maybe I had kicked him down into the pavement a little bit too hard. Maybe I had "accidentally" dumped a significant dose of electricity into his system after he had mouthed off at me with an ethnic slur. But I was feeling a lot of frustration building up in me, and I figured that taking it out on some dumb, skinhead asshole was a better way to handle it than potentially blowing up at Taylor.

"You, uhh. You okay there, Dynamic?" I flipped my head around toward Assault, my patrol partner for the night; as I scowled, he took a few steps backward, holding his hands up defensively. "Woah, woah, sorry, cap. Just checkin' on ya. I'll go screw off, then." The other cape proceeded to double check on the restraints on some of the other Empire soldiers we had caught in the middle of an attempted rape on - ironically enough - a young white girl. I felt a little bit guilty about snarling at Assault like that, though; he really _had_ just been checking on me, had been concerned about how I was doing, and I returned the favor by popping off on him for albeit a brief moment.

With a sigh, I made sure that the cuffs on the Nazi I was handling weren't so tight as to cut off his circulation, though I allowed myself the right to still keep them uncomfortable around his wrists. Once I had properly secured the would-be rapist, I turned instead to his would-be victim, who was sitting with her back to the wall of one of the buildings flanking the alleyway we were in. We had caught the Empire punks early on in the act, so the girl was thankfully not too roughed up. I was sure that she would still be having nightmares about this attack for a while, but it had ended up far better than it could have, and there would be three less jackasses on the street that would try to do things like that to other young women like her; I might have ultimately left and fought against Lustrum, but that didn't mean that I didn't still have a special piece of hatred in my heart for sexual criminals like the ones Assault and I had just finished laying out onto the asphalt.

As I approached her, I made sure to take light steps, and spoke softly to get her attention. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

The girl was still shaking a bit in spite of the mild evening and the patrol jacket I had offered her; some mascara had run down her cheeks as the result of tears of panic and fear that had been shed during and immediately after the attack, and I felt a pang of pity that I quickly tried to dismiss. "Uhm. Not good. But, uhh. I guess that's obvious, yeah?" The young woman attempted a small smile, and I returned the expression, glad to see that she could still maintain some humor in her situation.

I crouched down nearby, and could feel the ambient electromagnetism in the air around the girl; the energy field around normal humans like her wasn't all that much, but it was still enough that my power could detect it. "Yeah. You're doing really well, though, for someone who just went through something like that." I lifted an arm up and reached a hand out slowly; when the girl didn't recoil from the motion, I extended it the rest of the way and gently placed it on her shoulder, giving the young woman a small squeeze of my hand in encouragement. "It was scary, wasn't it?"

I knew it would make her cry, but that was partially the point; I wasn't trying to be sadistic, or anything, but I wanted to make sure that she got out everything she needed to before things moved on. "Yeah. It was scary. I was so scared, oh my God." The girl reached out and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing my torso tight as she buried her head against my chest. As fresh tears streamed down her face, ruining her make-up even further, I gently stroked her head and gave small words of comfort. "Thank you, Miss Dynamic. Thank you so much, oh my God. I'm so glad you were here." I wanted to feel the gratitude in those words, wanted to feel appreciated and encouraged, but when I looked down at the young woman sobbing up against me, all I could think about was how old she must have been. It was hard to tell, given the state that the girl was in, with mascara running and her hair disheveled, but I wouldn't have been surprised if she was the same age as Taylor was, maybe a little bit older, or even younger, for all I knew; but the clothes she was wearing, and how caked her face was with make-up... As much as I didn't want to think about it, I knew what that girl was doing out in the Docks at that time of night, and she was doing those things at _Taylor's age_. I tried to imagine my daughter being forced to sell her body, and nearly discharged electricity into the girl in front of me out of the emotion that flashed through my body.

The Docks were better than they had been a year ago. As unethical as it might have been, I used my influence to help Danny push through his initiative to get the ferry up and running again; the resulting employment for the Dockworkers sent ripples of prosperity throughout the community, making the Docks just a little bit better than it had used to be. Even so, young women, under the age of minority, were prostituting themselves. It didn't matter the reason, of course, whether it was for survival, for drugs, or out of sexual slavery; all those reasons and more were just evidence of how far the Docks still had to go, before it could be a neighborhood that everyone could be proud of.

...and yet, I lived in Downtown. I didn't send my daughter to Winslow, down in the Docks; I sent her to Arcadia, where all of the other upper-class rich kids went. My husband might have worked with all of the lower-class citizens of the Docks, but he still lived in the million-dollar penthouse alongside Taylor and I. We declared that we were champions of the poor, of the downtrodden, of the vulnerable, and yet... We had nothing to do with them in our day to day lives. I had considered that a lot, considered it perhaps far more than I needed to. Was I _really_ a hero, if I wasn't down in the trenches and the mud all hours of the day with everyone I fought to protect? I shook those thoughts out of my head and looked back down at the girl, who had started to calm down from her crying fit. Some more muffled thanks were sobbed into my chest, and I felt that I was, at least, something of a hero, if not necessarily as much of one as I would have liked to be.

"Alright. You said your name was Jessica, right?" The young woman nodded, sniffing and wiping her nose with my patrol jacket; I didn't mind, and had long gotten used to it over the years of lending it to people in need. "Alright. Jessica. You can do two things now, and the choice is _entirely_ up to you, okay? We won't pressure you either way. _You_ do what _you_ want, okay, Jessica?" The girl nodded again, and I smiled as gently as I could while I continued. "You can come back with us to give a report on what happened, or we can just take you home, right now. I and Assault over there saw enough with our own eyes that our testimony should be enough, but it never hurts to add more to the pile, yeah? But, again, it's up to _you_, Jessica. Which would you prefer?"

Jessica looked from me, to the thug that I had secured, to Assault, and then to the punks he had cuffed; once she looked back to me, she grit her teeth, bit her lip, and looked away sheepishly as she spoke up. "I... Is it okay if I just... Go home, Miss Dynamic? I just... I'm sorry. I really..."

I wrapped her up in my arms again, giving her quiet, soft shushes as she started to tear up again. "Shh. Hey, it's okay. Like I said, it's up to you, okay, Jessica? I can take you home, okay? Assault can stay here to make sure those jerks don't get away, right?" I looked over to Assault, who gave me a foul expression at the thought of babysitting the skinheads; after I shot an equally incredulous expression away, my subordinate just sighed and nodded in acquiescence. "Yeah, see? Just let me know when you're ready to get going, okay, Jessica?" I knew that it would delay our patrol significantly, but I wasn't about to let a girl as old as my daughter walk home at night, and _especially_ not after she just almost got raped.

After another minute or so, Jessica nodded into my chest again, pulling herself away. "Yeah. I... I think I'm good. Are you... Are you sure you can take me back? I don't want to like... Trouble you, or whatever..."

I smiled and stroked Jessica's hair. It was dark and curly, like mine. Like Taylor's. That girl's eyes were brown, too. Like Danny's. Like Taylor's. I forced a smile on my face to eject those thoughts, and nodded gently. "Yes, of course. I can even use my powers to take you home, if you'd like...?" I raised an eyebrow and gave the girl a half-grin; that tactic tended to really help with cheering people up, especially kids.

And, just like clockwork, it helped there, too. Jessica's eyes went wide - yes, absolutely like Taylor's, or maybe I was just seeing things - and she nodded enthusiastically. "Y... Yeah! If we can, Miss Dynamic! I... That'd be really cool!"

I chuckled as I stood up, bringing the girl up to her feet at the same time. "Yes, yes we can, Jessica. And I promise, it _will_ be really cool." I looked back over my shoulder to Assault, who just shook his head and rolled his eyes; as much of a problem child as Ethan had tended to be, I could trust him to not leave a pack of Nazi thugs unattended. "Alright, ready, Jessica?" As I positioned my arms to carry the young woman in a bridal carry style, I saw a smile grow wide on her face in anticipation; as soon as she nodded, I picked her up in my arms and began charging the soles of my feet.

I had spent a significant amount of time studying energy physics since I had developed my powers, and I still didn't really understand what I was doing most of the time; I had managed to develop a few tricks here and there as I gained more knowledge of how electricity and magnetism and stuff worked, but... Most of the time, I just _did_ things with my power, and it caused other things to happen. For example, I didn't quite understand how pumping electricity out of my feet en masse allowed me to skip along the ground at the speed of a car, but it did. If nothing else, I had managed to get a Tinker to construct me a suit that allowed me to more effectively conduct my electricity, but even he admitted that he wasn't really sure how all of it functioned.

At that moment, though, it didn't matter. Holding Taylor in my arms, dashing across the asphalt, hearing cheers of excitement followed by screams of temporary fear... There was no reason for me to spend a single thought on worrying about how my powers worked, not then, not when there was too much that I would have missed out on if I had focused on inane, pointless things like that. I just smiled and felt my heart race as I ran along, allowing all of my concerns and worries to evaporate into the air around me.

<s>\----------</s>

I had made it home an hour later than usual due to how badly I had delayed my patrol with Assault by delivering Jessica back to her home; Ethan had - perhaps rightfully - been annoyed with me, especially since it meant that he himself would have ended up getting home to Jamie later, as well. Danny, thankfully, had grown used to me getting home late, and the living room light was on even in spite of it being one in the morning; guilt shot through me for a moment as I worried about the sleep I was denying my husband, but I did my best to push that down as I unlocked the front door to our penthouse and made my way in.

"Anne? That you?" Danny called out to me in a soft voice, and I assumed that our daughter must have already been asleep in her bed.

"Yeah. Sorry I'm home so late, Dan." I smiled sadly as I made my way into the living room, collapsing onto one of the couches we had in there. My husband was sitting in a reclining chair, going through some paperwork for what I assumed was Dockworker's Association business; I was grateful that he hadn't been completely wasting time staying up for me, at least.

Danny returned my smile, and I felt my heart skip a beat; we had been married for sixteen years, ever since I saved his life from Lustrum's thugs, but the way that my husband smiled at me still caused love to strike through me like I was some kind of schoolgirl. "You know it's fine, Anne. It always is." He placed the paperwork on a nearby desk, before returning to look toward me. "Long night?"

I nodded, covering my eyes with the crook of my arm as I spoke. "Yeah. There was..." I always felt guilty talking about the nastier things to my husband, knowing how it could bring down a person's mood; I looked over to him, though, and he nodded to me, motioning for me to go ahead. "...some Empire thugs. Trying to rape a girl. A white girl, too. Hypocrites."

Danny smiled at me, taking a sip from a glass of water before speaking. "They're Nazis, honey. Nazi gang members. I don't know how much integrity you can expect out of people like them."

I chuckled a bit, nodding back to him. "Yeah. We... We stopped them, before it got too rough. The girl, though... Her name was Jessica. She was still really upset. Understandable, though, really, being in that kind of situation. She..." I choked up for a moment, as I tried to get the rest of my words out. "She was around Taylor's age. And she was... I think she was out that late to... The way she was dressed..." I didn't know why it was so hard for me to just _say it_, since I had clearly been able to _think it_ not that long ago. "God, Dan. She had Taylor's hair. She had Taylor's eyes. She..."

As I started to tear up, Danny made his way over, kneeling in front of the couch and taking my hand. "Hey. Anne. I'm here for you, okay? I'm right here." I squeezed his hand hard and did my best to compose myself. Young girls like Jessica, teenagers like her, they needed the right to cry, to get their emotions in order; I was a woman in my early forties, though, and I needed to be strong, for the innocents that needed protecting, and for my family. I managed to calm down and stop myself from crying, before giving Danny's hand a much gentler squeeze this time, letting him know that I was okay. "Alright. Alright..." It wasn't meant as a word that carried any semantic meaning; it was just a soothing, soft noise for him to make, and I could appreciate that. "Do you want to go to bed, Anne? We don't have to. We can stay down here for a bit, if you want." Even though I knew that I shouldn't, I still felt pathetic. Not a few hours previous, I had been doing the same exact thing that Danny was then doing to me instead to Jessica; not a few God damned hours previous, I had been the one taking care of someone, and yet at that moment, I was the one in need of care.

I squeezed down with no small amount of guilt into Danny's hand as I pulled myself up on the couch, wiping some tears away as I did. "Yeah. Let's go to bed, Danny. I need to drive Taylor to Arcadia tomorrow, anyway, and I want to make sure I'm properly rested for that."

Danny nodded, smiled, and helped pull me up off of the couch. "Alright. Anne?" I looked at him, sniffing a bit as I gave a curious expression. "I love you. You're a wonderful woman. You're a wonderful hero, too. And I love you."

I blushed furiously as I looked away from my husband, my eyes threatening to turn on their water works yet again. "Quiet, you." I reached out and gave him a small zap with my power, which only elicited a burst of laughter from Danny, that he quickly tried to suppressed when he remembered that our daughter was sleeping upstairs. "...but thank you, Danny. And I love you too. You're a wonderful man. You're a wonderful husband, too. But let's get to sleep now. It's late, yeah?" He nodded, I smiled, and we made our way up to bed.

<s>\----------</s>

"Taylor." My daughter didn't really respond aside from a glance in my direction; I hadn't expected much more than that, though. The morning's breakfast had gone about as it always had been going around then, with Taylor essentially ignoring me while chatting happily with Danny; my husband had noticed it too, and had been subtly trying to redirect the conversation my way whenever he could, but Taylor never responded to those attempts, continuing to avoid looking my way. I could tell that she probably wanted Danny to take her to school - as she had clearly been wanting him to do for several school mornings by that point - but he managed to dodge that by making some obviously bullshit excuse about having to be at the office early, some nonsense about a big meeting that definitely didn't exist. With that, though, the result was that Taylor and I were once more driving to Arcadia in almost complete silence. I had been keeping the radio off on our drives, in the hope that it would force Taylor to say something, somehow; by that point, though, that plan had completely failed.

Still, I tried. "Taylor. Please, talk to me." She just continued to look out the window, not vocalizing even a single syllable of a single word. "I don't even know why you're upset with me. Whatever I did, I want to make it right, okay? But I can't do that if I don't know what I did." My pestering only caused her to turn even further away, to the point that her whole back was facing me while I drove. With a sigh, I just shook my head before turning my attention back to the road. I doubted that needling her further on the subject would do any good, and if I made her more tense at that moment, it might only result in some sort of blow up, which I-

"It's not what you did." I could barely believe my ears. Taylor was talking to me. She wasn't looking at me, her eyes still focused on the streets around us, but she was _talking_ to me. I almost wanted to cry at how happy I was. "I mean, it sort of is, but not really. It's nothing you had a choice in. Well, mostly. It's... Crap, I don't even know how to say this."

I darted my eyes in her direction for a moment, before offering gently: "Take your time, Taylor. Just talk when you want to talk, okay?"

With a heavy sigh, my daughter flopped backward into her seat so that she was facing forward again. "It's really not your fault, mom. I don't blame you. Maybe a little bit, but not really, you know? Or maybe you don't. God damnit, this is so hard to try and explain." I didn't interrupt that time, but instead gave her time to compose her words properly. "It's like... Mom, you're a superhero, right? Dynamic? The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate?" I nodded to each question in turn, but I wasn't quite sure where she was going with it. "But I'm... I'm just Taylor Hebert. I'm a nobody. I don't have any powers. I'm above average in academics, below average in sports, and just all-around... Nothing, really."

I turned toward her for a moment with a look of shock and confusion on her face. "_That's_ what you've been worried about, Taylor?" A pained expression crossed my daughter's face, and I hurriedly corrected myself. "I mean... Sorry, that's not what I meant. It's okay that you're worried about that kind of stuff, but... You're fine the way you are, Taylor, really. You don't have to have powers to be an interesting person. You have lots of stuff, like your books, and everything else."

Taylor, however, didn't seem satisfied with that, as she shook her head and crossed her arms. "But Mom, like... All the New Wave kids have powers, yeah? Even Panacea, who's adopted. And I know it's kind of fucked up to think this way-" I winced a little bit at hearing my daughter curse, but allowed her to continue. "-but like, even _Kaiser_ has powers, after his dad was Allfather, yeah? So all these kids of heroes and even kids of villains have powers, while I'm sitting here, the daughter of one of the greatest superheroes in America, and I just... Don't have powers. It sucks, Mom. It really, _really_ sucks."

I wanted to bask in the feeling of being called "one of the greatest superheroes in America" by my daughter, but I didn't have time, not with how much she needed me to reassure her right then. "Taylor. Not every child of a parahuman gets powers, you know. For example, there-"

I hadn't been paying attention. I had run a red light. A delivery truck going full speed slammed into us. The sound of crunching metal, followed by the sound of skidding along the pavement, the sound of honking horns, the sound of Taylor and I bouncing along the inside of our car. Another loud crash, the vehicle slamming into a wall, and we finally stopped moving. Felt like forever. Must have only taken a few seconds. I was concussed, definitely. More than likely other injuries. No, not about me, Taylor. I looked toward the passenger seat. She was okay. Thank God, she was okay. But the metal frame of the car had bent in a way that I doubted she could move, doubted that _I_ could move her without hurting her. "M... Mom?" Her voice was weak. She was bleeding. I couldn't be sure from where, but it was a lot. "Mom? Are you there?"

I wasn't trapped, I had free range of movement. I reached out to her, grabbing her left hand, and squeezing it with both of mine. "I'm here, baby. I'm here. Are you okay? Do you know where you're hurt?"

Taylor tried to shake her head, but it banged up against the collapsed frame; she couldn't even make that small little movement. "No. I... I think everything's still attached. It hurts, though. I think maybe I have a broken arm?"

I looked toward Taylor's right arm, on the side of the car that the delivery truck had us; the way that the metal had fallen in suggested that she was probably right about that. "Yeah, I think maybe you do. But it's going to be okay. We're going to get you out of here, alright, Taylor?" My daughter nodded, as I looked out onto the street around us. The delivery truck, unsurprisingly had come out mostly unscathed barring busted headlights and a bashed up front bumper; we hadn't hit any other cars or any pedestrians as we spun out, with the only collateral damage being the brick wall we had dented into slightly.

The driver of the delivery truck came marching toward our car, obviously mad as all hell. "What the _fuck_, lady?! Did you run a fuckin' red light or somethin'?! You fuckin' stupid or some shit?!"

I grit my teeth, but did my best to not escalate the situation. "Yes, I ran a red light. Yes, that was stupid of me. But my daughter is hurt. She needs firefighters to come get her out, and she needs an ambulance for her injuries. So you're going to call 911 and make sure they get here." I stared at him, and he just looked at the car with a dumb expression on his face. "_Now_. You will call 911 _right now_."

"Okay. I'll do that, lady. But. You might have bigger problems." He pointed, and I suddenly understood why he had been staring with that stupid look of his.

The car was on fire. Something had happened, something with the engine, something with the gas tank, I couldn't tell. But the car was on fire. And Taylor was trapped. And I couldn't free her without possibly hurting her any more. "Shit." There wasn't much more I could say. I vaguely heard the truck driver on the phone with emergency services while I watched the flames flickering further towards the cabin. Would the gas tank explode? Did that even happen in real life? Even if it didn't explode, would the flames reach Taylor? I could get out, even if I had to kick the driver's side door open, but Taylor was trapped. Would the firefighters get here in time? Could they get her out before she... Before my daughter... Before... Oh God. Oh fucking God, no.

I started to hyperventilate, none of my usual coping techniques working to calm myself down, not in a situation like that. I began shaking Taylor's left arm roughly. "Taylor? Hey, Taylor? Can you hear me? You need to get out of there, right now. Any way you can move, please, Taylor, please move."

The flames started to creep closer towards the two of us, and Taylor spoke with a voice that was only semi-conscious. "What? Mom, I... I'm trying, but I can't. Everything... Everything's stuck. Wait, Mom... What... Why's it hot, Mom?"

The fire was spreading way faster than I felt that it had any right too, and I felt the flames start to exude their heat onto my body. "Taylor. Listen to me. Please listen to me, Taylor. Right now, the car is on fire. Do you understand? The car is on fire." I saw a look of fear cross my daughter's face, and felt a temporary burst of guilt cross through me that I suppressed as quickly as I could. "So you need to get out, Taylor. Please. Just try. Anything you can, Taylor. Just try to move."

"W... Wait, Mom? Wh... What do you mean, the car's on fire?" The panic on Taylor's face increased, and I saw her start to pant from the fear, tears forming in her eyes as terror filled her body. "Mom, I... I can't move, Mom. Please, help me, Mom. I can't... Mom, please!"

I pushed on the metal frame as hard as my natural human strength allowed me to, but it wouldn't budge. I kicked out the driver's door - I might very well have been injured, but I didn't care, not at that moment - ran around to the outside of the passenger side, and began yanking on it as hard as I could. "Come on you fucking piece of shit! Move! Let her go, you stupid fucking car!" What was I even trying to do? Firefighters had to use specialized tools to get people out of crushed cars, so what could I possibly accomplish. I screamed, continuing to pull at it. "Fucking _move_! Stupid God damned fucking car!"

"Mom! It's getting hotter! I... I think the fire... The fire's here, mom! It's... It's burning me! Mom! Help me, please!" Taylor started to scream in pain and horror as the flames started to lick at her body, and I felt my electricity threatening to discharge into the metal frame; I knew that if I did, though, that I'd only end up killing my daughter anyways.

"Lady! Get away from there! You're gonna get hurt!" The truck driver had grabbed my arm, and was starting to try and pull me away from the flaming car. Where the _fuck_ were the God damned firefighters?!

"Let me go, you piece of shit! My daughter's in there, I have to help her! I have to...!" I felt my powers build up, and I wondered how much trouble I would get into if I blasted the truck driver off his ass so I could get back to trying to save my God damned _fucking_ daughter.

Taylor's screams began to ring louder across the streets, a crowd having grown to be audience to my daughter's impending death, which seemed to promise to be slow and excruciating. I watched helplessly as the flames wrapped around her, burning her, as she flailed around inside of the car. "Mom, I think... I think I'm on fire! I... Oh God, Mom... Please... Please help me, Mom! I don't... I don't want to die! Mommy! Please! Please help-"

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground. Had I passed out? Passed out from the stress? I looked around me. It was the same scene, the same street, the same truck driver, the same crowd. But I couldn't hear my daughter any more. Was she dead? Had she died? Had my darling, sweet, lovely baby Taylor died, all because of me? Did I get her killed, because I ran a red light? Everyone was staring at the car, so I looked up, as well. Except, there was no car. The frame was melted, sitting in a pool of molten metal that stopped just a few feet away from me. I didn't understand. Had the fire been that bad? Could regular automobile gasoline burn that hot? I had never heard of a car completely melting from a fire, so what-

Taylor was standing where the car was. Oddly enough, the first thought that crossed my mind wasn't something along the lines of "Oh, thank God my daughter's alive!" or "Oh, God, my daughter triggered and became a parahuman." but was rather "Oh, God, my daughter's standing naked in public for everyone to see." I was tempted to run over to her and give her my jacket for at least some modicum of decency, but the glowing-orange liquid metal between her and I prevented that.

The look on her face was equal parts anxiety and confusion. Her body was completely uninjured, and even the beautiful hair that I had feared would have been burnt off was still completely intact. Flames flickered and danced off of her fingertips, and I wasn't sure if Taylor was doing it consciously or not; more curiously than that, though, was that while the metal that had spread out from the epicenter was still brightly hot and semi-liquid, the metal that Taylor was standing directly on was completely solid, with a cool blue sheen of frost adorning it.

Before I could wonder about the situation any further, Taylor finally gathered enough composure to speak up. "Mom?" I slowly nodded in response. "What... What just happened?"

I looked around at the crowd. No matter what I said or didn't say, I was pretty sure that they already knew the truth; there was no sense in hiding it from my daughter, then. "I, uhm. Taylor?" Just as I had to her, Taylor gave me a slow nod in response. "I think what just happened is that..." I almost didn't want to say it, almost didn't want to _admit_ that it had indeed happened, the thing that I had been considering and fearing for so long. "I think you just became a parahuman, sweetie."

Taylor lifted her hands, examining the way that small bits of fire jumped out from them in irregular intervals. After several seconds of studying herself, my daughter looked back at me, apparently no less confused than she was before. After furrowing her brows and blinking in uncertainty few times, Taylor let out a simple "Oh."

I looked down at my own hands, and watched as electricity arced between my fingertips. With a sorrowful, defeated voice, I then repeated what my daughter had said, muttering it out too low and quiet for anybody else to hear: "Yeah. Oh."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her distracted driving caused a collision that nearly killed Taylor, Annette Hebert must now come to terms with the fact that she is the reason her daughter has become a newly minted parahuman.

The silence in the PRT interview room was thick enough to cut with a knife; none of the three of us arrayed around the stark metal table had said a word for what must have been two or three minutes. Taylor was sitting next to me, in a new pair of PRT-issue sweats - not a scrap of her old clothing could be found after the accident - while Danny sat across from the both of us; while my daughter fidgeted nervously in her chair, my husband had his arms crossed, his eyes shut, and his face turned downward, his expression shifting every now and again as unknowable emotions race through him. The PRT had - thankfully -allowed Taylor and I the privacy needed to discussion with Danny what had happened, but I had no doubt that they were still observing us through the cameras just in case Taylor's new power flared up.

Right. Taylor Hebert's new power; my daughter, a new parahuman. After I had confirmed Taylor was still alive after our car had practically exploded, I dialed Director Piggot's number as a helpful bystander covered Taylor up with his jacket; somehow, the nudity caused by her power burning her clothes off somehow managed to be more distressing than, you know, the fact that I had nearly _killed_ my daughter but only caused her to _trigger_ instead. A PRT van had rushed to our location within minutes of me placing the call, and Taylor and I were both rushed off to the PRT HQ building; after a quick battery of tests to make sure that she was healthy, uninjured, and not liable to destroy the entire building at the flip of a switch, Director Piggot gave me leave to inform Danny of our safety. My husband, the man that he was, immediately marched out of the Dockworkers' office and made his way to the PRT building in record time. We had exchanged a short "Hey." and a brief "Hi." when he had walked into the meeting room, but no other communication had been exchanged since he had arrived.

I nearly jumped out of my skin as Taylor, sitting next to me, cleared her throat to get our attention; as I turned to look at her, I saw Danny open his eyes, and saw the absolute _fury_ inside of them. "Uhm, Dad?" My daughter's voice was meek and nervous as my husband gave a small, non-committal grunt of acknowledgement; Danny had never yelled at her, but I knew that Taylor had seen what her father could be like when he was as mad as he was at that moment, and that she was no doubt afraid of being the target of a fully unleashed Danny Hebert for the first time in her fifteen year old life. "I'm fine, really." Another gruff noise from Danny as he went back to closing his eyes and taking deep, heavy breaths; thanks to years of PRT-sponsored couple's therapy, Danny and I had both managed to get our respective tempers under much better control than they had been in the past, but I knew that my husband still had to work, and work _hard_ to keep a lid on his, for which I really did love him dearly. "So, uhm..." A small, apprehensive smile appeared on Taylor's face, as she looked back and forth between me and her father. "Please don't be mad at Mom?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Taylor." Danny's voice was wooden, still, and fragile; it _terrified_ me, if I was being honest, since that was the angriest I had seen my husband in _years_, and I myself was the ultimate cause of it. "I am _very_ angry at your mother right now, as I'm sure she knows." I gave a meager, guilty nod, as I had no real defense to speak of; the accident was my fault, and thus also was her subsequent triggering, and thus also was... Everything that would come after that moment. "I _am_, however, also very, _very_ glad that you're both safe and unharmed." The look on Danny's face softened only the slightest bit as he looked at me, and then at Taylor. "Even if, under normal circumstances, I would have lost my _fucking daugh-_" I braced myself for Danny's explosion, but I sighed with relief as he stopped himself, clenching his jaw and eyes shut while relaxing his fists. "Sorry. To both of you. I'm glad you're both safe. Really, I am." My husband shot a sharp, pointed look at me, and his tone was hard, biting. "So. What's the next step for Taylor? I'm assuming that the PRT isn't just going to let her go?"

I grimaced, since that was the part of the conversation that I was dreading the most; Taylor nearly being killed in a car accident was one thing that I could have handled Danny being angry at me for, but the consequences of her developing powers... "Danny." I was shocked at how unsteady my voice as, and I had to clear my throat before continuing. "She won't be safe, otherwise. Non-affiliated parahumans are constantly targeted by villains, and there's _no_ way that _something_ won't get out; the accident happened on a very public street, and the PRT's information suppression capabilities only extend so far, you know, and..." I trailed off, not really even sure where to take my explanation; instead, I just squirmed nervously in my seat, desperately trying to read my husband's expression.

"And you think that Taylor will be safer in the Wards, hm? Where she'll have to be facing down those same villains on a regular basis? Villains like Lung, or like Kaiser?" Danny jabbed a finger in our daughter's direction, causing Taylor to let out a small squeak of fright as she scooted back an inch in her chair; my husband's tone was tense, and I could tell that the constraints keeping his rage in check were becoming more and more strained with each passing word. "Do you _really_ want our daughter fighting giant dragon men and insane Nazis that can conjure blades from nothing?"

I made impotent gestures with my hands that I wasn't even sure what I was trying to communicate with them. "Danny, the Wards don't get deployed against the likes of Lung. She'd get deployed against like... The Undersiders, or something! Something harmless, you know? She'd be _fine_, Danny; she _will_ be fine." I found it hard to believe the words even as I spoke them; the Wards _was_ the safest place for Taylor since she had triggered, but I wasn't going to pretend that it was even necessarily _safe_, either. Besides, if she was in the Wards, then I would be there in the Protectorate right along side her, and _I_ could keep her safe, and _I_ could be the one to show her how to be a parahuman, and _I_...

"Oh, right." There was venomous sarcasm in Danny's voice, but I was happy that he was channeling his frustration through that rather than shouting. "The harmless Undersiders, featuring harmless villains like the harmless Hellhound with her harmless giant mutant dogs that can tear people apart if their master wants them to!" My husband pointed a finger in my direction, and I couldn't even feel offended by the gesture; I _had_ fucked up, and I felt like I deserved every ounce of Danny's ire at that point. "And why are _you_ even trying to make this decision on your own, Anne? Shouldn't the two of us be making it together for-"

"Excuse me?!" _That_ had made _both_ Danny and myself startle backward, as Taylor shouted and slammed her hands on the metal desk, causing the sound to echo throughout the room. "Why are the two of you talking like this?!" My husband and I both looked at each other, then toward our daughter, confused expressions on our face. "You're talking like I'm not even in this room with the two of you! You're talking like it's not _my_ life that's being discussed. You're talking like _I_ myself somehow don't have any input on the matter!" Danny and I had, apparently, forgotten that Taylor was indeed a Hebert daughter, as my little girl momentarily looked even more furious than Danny had been when he had walked into the room. "I get it, you're my parents, you have the final say-so, and all that crap, but..." With a scoff, Taylor shook her head and folded her arms. "Don't make this fu... This freaking decision without me."

Danny and I looked at each other again, our confusion exchanged for guilt as we realized that the both of us had, indeed, been talking exactly like how Taylor had said; we both knew that a fifteen year old girl like our daughter wasn't fully equipped to make those kind of decisions on her own, but... The expression we shared between each other confirmed that we both believed that Taylor was right, and that she _did_ deserve some input on the matter, as life-altering as it was. "You're right, Taylor." Danny was the one to speak up first, a significant portion of his anger having evaporated from the shame he was then feeling. "Your mother and I are both sorry for having acted like that. Right, Annette?" I nodded, giving off as comforting of a smile to my daughter as I could manage. "What do _you_ want to do? Do you want to think of today as nothing but a bad dream?" I suppressed a scoff; I loved Danny, but he had _very_ little knowledge of the realities of the cape world. "Or, I guess... Knowing that it's dangerous, though, and knowing that you can get hurt..." My husband was right, so I wasn't about to correct him on it. "...do you want to join the Wards? Or maybe something else that neither your mother nor I have thought of?"

Taylor closed her eyes and thought for several seconds, before looking at us and answering with all of the confidence in the world: "I want to join the Merchants." I had never felt emotions like those run through me in my entire life, and I was fairly certain that Danny never had, either; even as the two of us sat there gobsmacked, the grin on my daughter's face grew wider and wider until it burst out into uproarious laughter. "Oooh my God! You... Pfthah! The look on your faces! Hahaha! That's priceless!" Relief unlike anything I had ever known flooded me, and I felt myself practically sink into my chair as I sighed out my entire body's supply of air; in spite of ourselves, Danny and I both smiled at each other, letting out a few small, awkward laughs as our daughter pounded the table in mirth. "I'm sorry, but... That was so, _so_ worth it. I... I don't _actually_ want to join the Merchants, though. Just so we're clear."

"I mean..." I gave an exaggerated shrug as I grinned over to Danny and Taylor. "If that's what you _really_ want, dear daughter of mine, then I suppose that we _can't_ stop you..." I made a show of pulling out my PRT-issue phone and unlocking it. "Let me just call up Skidmark here, let him know he has a new potential recruit..." I put in some junk number and pressed the call button, smirking at Taylor as I did, and delighting in the increasing look of horror on her face.

"Mom! No! Seriously! I was kidding! Please, God no!" As Taylor practically _scrambled_ for my phone, Danny, sat across from us, was holding a hand up against his mouth to try and suppress his laughter; unfortunately, though, all of our humor was cut short when Taylor, in her fit of panic, placed a hand on my arm and practically _drained_ what felt like half of my body's heat. "Wait, shit, fuck, Mom, are you okay? Crap, uhh..." I _instantly_ began to shiver, though I doubted that I was in any sort of serious or immediate danger of destructive hypothermia; even so, Taylor began flailing around in an attempt to fix her mistake, hands placing themselves onto my skin and alternately putting warmth in and taking it back out as she struggled to control her power.

"T... T... Taylor, i... I... It's fine, j... Just h... Hold on, o... Okay?" With shaking hands, I grabbed a hold of my daughter's shoulders, squeezing down in an attempt to help grant her some mental stability. "I... I'm fine, so j... So just st... Stop, okay?" Taylor's eyes were wide open with horror and fear, and I could tell that she was one step short of hyperventilating from the stress; instead, I held her like that for a few minutes as my body's natural thermoregulation conjoined with the room temperature air around me helped to restore a decent temperature to myself. Once I wasn't shivering enough to make my teeth clatter, I turned toward Danny with a meaningful look on my face. "T... That, Danny. That's why she n... Needs to be with the Wards. I... It was fine just then, but in the future, m... Maybe at school, or somewhere else..."

I closed my eyes, and thought back to the way that, in the days immediately following my own trigger, I had accidentally stopped a man's heart by unintentionally robbing him of his bioelectrical rhythm; I managed to restart his body, but the memory stayed stuck in my head as a reminder to the dangers my power posed if I didn't properly control it. "It's not just about our daughter being safe, Danny, it's..." I looked toward Taylor with a sad, apologetic look on my face. "...it's about keeping _other_ people safe from our daughter, too. She's not a villain, she's not evil, but if she's not careful, if she doesn't know how to control her power, then..." An image of Danny, frozen stiff in our living room flashed through my head; an image of Emma, burnt to a crisp. "...it won't be good, for anyone." Taylor looked away sheepishly, but I could tell that she understood what I was saying; _she_ wasn't dangerous, but her _ability_ could be.

Danny himself clearly didn't like what he was hearing, but even as stubborn as he was, my husband was still a rational, reasonable man; pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed, and threw his hands out wide. "Alright. You're right, Annette. I wish you weren't, but you're right." I wanted the smile on my face to be a victorious one, but it mostly came out as slightly guilty, instead; Danny looked over to Taylor, again, making a soft hand gesture her way. "But it's still up to Taylor, ultimately." I nodded, even as I knew that I would do everything I had to get Taylor into the Wards, whether she liked it or not, for her sake, as well as mine.

My daughter shifted around uncomfortably in her seat for several seconds, before nodding, causing a rocket of elation to fire off in my heart. "Yeah. Uhm. Yeah, I'll join the Wards." Taylor turned and smiled at me, causing me to feel more joy than I had since I had heard her call me "mama" for the first time. "Is... Is that okay, Mom? If I come join the Wards?"

"Yes. Yes it is. It is _more_ than okay, Taylor. You have no idea how okay it is." I grabbed Taylor's hands, meaning to squeeze down on them in an affectionate, loving manner to celebrate the fact that my daughter was going to be a _superhero_, a superhero along with _me_; unfortunately, all that I achieved was receiving a burst of heat in my palms from Taylor's power, causing me to wince and recoil reflexively.

With a slightly panicked, slightly guilty look, Taylor pulled her hands away from mine, looking away shamefully. "I, uhm. Guess we still have some work to do on that, don't we?"

Not even minding the burning sensation in my hands, I simply gave my daughter a wide, loving smile, and nodded before speaking. "Yeah. I guess we do."

<s>\----------</s>

"Mooom, do you _really_ have to be here for when I meet the Wards?" Taylor blushed a little bit as she shuffled in place next to me on the elevator, looking away as she pouted. "Couldn't you have gotten like... Armsmaster or Miss Militia to escort me down here? It's going to be _so_ embarrassing to have my mom introduce me..."

I did feel mildly offended at what my daughter was saying, but I also knew that I had acted the same to my own mom when I was her age; not really being able to blame Taylor, I simply laughed and shook my head before responding. "I'm the captain of this Protectorate department, little owl. It's my responsibility to do this for _all_ new Wards." I placed a hand cautiously on where Taylor's arm was covered up by the PRT sweat shirt she wore, careful not to reach anywhere near bare skin; I was sure that she'd be able to get her power under control just like how I had managed to do with mine, but we didn't need to risk anything until she had. "So, yes, I _do_ have to be here for when you meet the Wards. Plus, they'll need to know that I _am_ your mom, anyways, just for transparency's sake, and everything."

With a sigh and a grimace, Taylor shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweat shirt, continuing to pout. "I guuueeess..." Lord almighty, was my daughter cute when she was mad like that, though; maybe it had come at the cost of her becoming a parahuman, but I was so, _so_ glad that my stupidity hadn't cost Danny and I our daughter, was so, _so_ glad that Taylor was still there with us, was so, _so_ glad that...

Tears had begun to build up in my eyes by the time that the elevator had reached the Wards level; wiping the moisture away, I sniffed and handed Taylor a simple domino mask. "Here you go, sweetie." My daughter looked up at me strangely, not quite sure why I was offering the mask to her. "Ah, it's... Just a formality. You'll need to 'unmask' to your fellow Wards, just like how they'll do for you. Cape culture, and all that stuff." Taylor looked at the mask suspiciously, but took it and placed it around her eyes even as she frowned slightly; I wondered, idly, what my daughter's costume would look like, what sort of designs it would have, how Taylor would look in it, if people would love her as a superhero just as they loved me, if I was doing the right thing, if-

"Mom?" Taylor's call pulled me out of my thoughts, and I realized that she was already at the end of the hallway that led to the Wards' hub room. "Are you coming, or what?" I could tell that she was impatient, an emotion brought about by a mixture of excitement and anxiety, and I knew that it would be cruel to keep her waiting any longer than she had to.

"Ah, sorry, sweetie. Just lost in thought, is all." I discharged some of my electricity through my feet to burst down the hallway in a second - I took a moment to consider how odd it was that Taylor _didn't_ find the sight of her mother dashing around like that to be odd in itself, but that seemed to have been the way our family worked, at that point - before pressing the button to let the Wards know that they had a visitor; a minute or so of waiting later, and the light above the door turned from red to green, ushering us in. "Alright, Taylor." My daughter looked up at me expectantly, and I could see the apprehension in her eyes. "Ready to meet your new team mates?" She smiled awkward, and nodded nervously; I doubted that Miss Militia or Armsmaster could have been able to offer the emotion support that she clearly needed at that moment, but I kept that thought to myself.

As we walked into the Wards hub, I allowed myself to be momentarily impressed with how orderly Aegis had managed to get his team in just a short minute; Aegis himself was positioned in front - taking up a position that would have made me think of some sort of marine sergeant, or some such - while the other Wards were set up in a row behind him, starting with Clockblocker and descending in age and rough seniority, down to a miffed looking Vista at the other end. "Dynamic, ma'am." I didn't know how many times I had told Aegis that he didn't have to be so formal with me, but the kid just _insisted_ on giving me titles like that. "A pleasure to see you, as always." There was also the issue of his not-so-subtle crush on me, but he was a responsible enough kid to not push it past anything except ineffectual teenage flirting. "I assume that this is our new team mate?"

I smiled, ushering my daughter forward; Taylor fidgeted nervously - I heard a "Tch." from Shadow Stalker's direction as she did so - before taking a deep breath and walking a few awkward, robotic steps forward. Once in place, she looked at me, as if expecting that _I_ would be the one to do her introductions for her; with a small smirk and a shake of my head, I motioned for her to greet the rest of the Wards on her own. To say that Taylor looked horrified would have been an understatement - she wasn't exactly a _shy_ girl, but she wasn't exactly the most socially adroit, either - but my daughter simply grit her teeth and bore it. "Uhm. Hello, everyone." Clockblocker and Gallant's faces was inscrutable behind their masks, but I saw Kid Win, Browbeat, and even Vista smile as Taylor spoke, obviously with the intention of trying to help her feel more comfortable. "I'm, uhm. I'm Therma. I just got my powers today, but, erm. I hope that we can all, ah, work together well?" I had to resist the urge to cringe sympathetically on my daughter's behalf; I loved her - I so, truly loved her - but she could be an awkward little thing when she wanted to be. She looked anxiously over at me again, and I gave her another nod, before her hands went up to her mask, peeling it off. "And, uhm. My name is Taylor Hebert. Again, nice to, erm. Meet you all."

Every set of visible eyes in the room went wide as they looked at Taylor, before they darted over to me; I intentionally hadn't told the Wards about "Therma's" relationship to me, with the exact hope that I would get that sort of reaction out of them. Taking off my own, lightning-stylized domino mask, I placed one hand on my daughter's shoulder - again, being _very_ careful not to touch bare skin - I smiled at the rest of my Wards and spoke cheerfully. "And I, as you all know, am Annette Hebert; your new team mate, Therma, otherwise known as Taylor Hebert, is indeed my daughter." I tightened up my face for a moment, giving the teenagers in the room a serious look. "I'm going to say this only once. Do _not_ treat my daughter any differently than you would any other Ward. Do _not_ go easy on her or give her less work-" That, I directed to Aegis, who blushed slightly behind his mask. "-or give her any grief that is better directed at me." And that, I directed to Shadow Stalker, and partially at Vista; the former didn't show any reaction, but the former grimaced and nodded slightly. "Is that understood?" A chorus of "Yes, ma'ams." resounded from the teenagers, mostly in unison.

"Mom, c'mon, st... Stop that..." I looked over to where Taylor was shuffling anxiously underneath my hand, a bright red flush on her cheeks as her eyes darted around the room. "Seriously, this is why I didn't want you coming for this, you're embarrassing me..." A few laughs popped up around the room, notably from Aegis, Gallant, Clockblocker, and Kid Win at the sight of my daughter's blushing; I couldn't blame them, especially not since a smile was spreading itself across my own face.

"Alright, alright, sorry. I'll stop 'embarrassing' you, _little owl._" The look of betrayal on Taylor's face was enough to _almost_ make me regret the way I teased her, and I could her Clockblocker start guffawing from where he was standing. "Okay, seriously, though. We do still have introductions to go through." I gestured over toward where Aegis was standing, and nodded toward the team captain. "Aegis, if you would begin?"

The boy nodded, closing the distance between himself and Taylor, before taking off his helmet and extending out his hand. "Aegis, otherwise known as Carlos Artigas. Nice to meet you, Taylor."

My daughter looked at me nervously; after the incident in the interview room, we had gotten her a pair of insulted gloves, but it was obviously that she was still concerned about the possibility of her power going haywire again. I squeezed her shoulder gently, and gave has as comforting of a smile as she could; after a momentary hesitation, she grabbed Carlos' hand and shook it a bit awkwardly. "N... Nice to meet you, Carlos."

Aegis stepped away, and Clockblocker sauntered up; taking off his helmet, he dramatically ran a hand through his ginger-red hair, putting on his best Hollywood smile. "The one, the only, the amazing Clockblocker. Otherwise known as Dennis Archer. A _pleasure_ to meet you, Taylor." I wasn't sure if the death glare I was shooting at the boy was getting through, but I made a mental note to tell Aegis to keep from scheduling Taylor on any patrols with Clockblocker.

After my daughter politely - and somewhat apprehensively - shook Dennis' hand, Gallant came up next. "Gallant. Otherwise known as Dean Stansfield. Nice to meet you, Taylor." I was thankful that Dean was apparently in one of his "good" periods with Glory Girl, since he appeared uninterested in my daughter.

Browbeat next, similarly polite and to the point; as much as I tried to encourage Robert to spend more time with his fellow Wards, his rightful concerns about his schizophrenia were always at the forefront of his mind, and he constantly dodged social interactions lest something get set off.

Kid Win, next, the boy nearly stumbling on nothing in particular as he walked over to where my daughter and I were standing. "Crap, uhm, give me one moment..." I blushed sympathetically and grit my teeth as I watched him struggle to get his visor off; several seconds and a few snickers from Dennis later, and he was finally able to properly introduce himself. "Uhh, sorry about that. My name's Chris. Err, Kid Win, I mean. I mean, Kid Win is my cape name, but Chris Michaels is my real name, and..." Chris grimaced, and the sheer pain I felt for the boy began to weigh my heart down. "Uhh. Sorry. I'm bad at this kind of thing."

Next to me, I heard my daughter giggle, but it... Wasn't a derisive sound. No, if anything, it was... "Oh, no, it's fine, Chris, really. I understand." As my daughter extended her hand out to grab and shake Chris', I noticed the look in her eye. Oh_. That_ was what that giggle was about, then? "Really, though. It's nice to meet you, too." ...well, I supposed, it was better than Dennis.

After Chris took his position back in line, the entire room turned to watch Shadow Stalker for one second, then two, then three... Then five, then ten. "Shadow Stalker? It's your turn to introduce yourself?" Aegis, ever dutiful, was the one to call the Ward in question out on her silence.

With something of a growl, Shadow Stalker stamped over to where Taylor was, and I felt myself tense up, ready to blast the stupid, belligerent girl if she decided to assault my daughter for some reason. "Whatever. Honestly, this shit is so fucking stupid." Shadow Stalker practically tore off her mask, tossing it onto a nearby couch without a care; with a sneer, she crossed her arms and gave something resembling an introduction. "Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess. All that bullshit. Nice to fucking meet you, I guess." Sophia looked at me, an annoyed look on her face as she spoke. "Can I fucking go now? I have better shit I could be doing." With an exasperated look on my face, I simply gave a heavy, defeated shrug; I knew that there was no handling Sophia, so I wasn't even going to try. "Alright. I'm out then, losers." And with that, the "hero" known was Shadow Stalker made her way out of the room.

Taylor watched the other girl go, eyes wide at the way that someone who was supposed to be one of her fellow Wards and team mates was acting; she looked at me first, with a confused, nervous expression, before she looked over to Aegis. With a sigh, my daughter's team captain just shook his head and explained. "Shadow Stalker is... A tough person to handle." _That_ was putting it lightly, but I wanted Aegis to be able to handle it how he chose, since the Wards were, technically, his responsibility, first and foremost; I was just an overseer, a supervisor in case things otherwise went south. "She's a probationary member of the Wards, I think you may have heard?" Taylor nodded; the fact that Shadow Stalker had been a violent vigilante before joining the Wards wasn't exactly classified information, and I had let things slip once or twice at the Hebert dinner table about how the issues I had regarding Sophia. "She's... Not a bad person?" The intonation in Carlos' voice was enough to suggest that he didn't fully believe that himself. "She's just... Prickly, I suppose." That was one word to describe her, certainly; if she wasn't Taylor's own age, I might have opted for more colorful terms.

"Basically, don't worry about her. She's just a dumb jerk." Vista came marching over with a friendly smile on her face; pulling her visor off, she extended a hand out - and up, given the height difference between the two of them - toward my daughter. "Vista, otherwise known as Missy Biron. Just call me Vista though, yeah? I like that better."

I appreciated the breath of fresh air that Missy gave the room, and Taylor apparently had, as well, given the speed and strength with which she shook the younger girl's hand. "Nice to meet you, Vista. Seriously, so nice to meet you." The two girls shared a giggle as they smiled at each other, while the tension that had flooded the rest of the room from Sophia's outburst managed to quickly evaporate.

I took a moment to watch the way that Taylor began to chat casually with the other Wards; to say that I reveled in the sight of my daughter simply talking to other kids her age would have been an understatement. While Taylor hadn't exactly been socially isolated or anything at Arcadia High, when her best friend Emma had ended up going to Winslow High, instead, Taylor obviously began to feel a little bit... Lonely; it didn't help, of course, that Emma had started to drift away from Taylor since the two of them had started high school, and my daughter had been forced to deal with the fact that she was slowly losing touch with the girl who had been like a sister to her for most of their lives. Being able to see Taylor start to make friends, then, was just an absolutely _wonderful_ feeling.

"Alright, kids." I clapped my hands, and the teenagers in the room all turned their attention to me. "I'll let you talk with Taylor for a little while longer. She has some more intake stuff to go through here in a little bit-" Taylor notably frowned at that, but she would have to do all of that boring paperwork whether she liked it or not, same as I and everyone else had. "-but you guys can all spend an hour getting to know each other better, okay?" Another chorus of "Yes ma'am." - accompanied by one "Yes, Mom." - followed my orders; satisfied that the kids had everything under control, I turned to make my way back toward the elevator.

Before I could leave the room, though, I felt a gloved, insulated hand grab onto one of my own. "Wait, Mom." I turned to see my daughter, tugging on me needily; with a gentle smile, I tilted my head and gave a questioning look. Taylor frowned and twisted her face up, looking away for a moment, obviously in serious thought; I gave her the time she needed to think about whatever it was she was trying to say, and she eventually managed to speak up. "Thank you, Mom." My heart _jumped_, and if I wasn't so aware of the unstable nature of her power at that moment, I would have wrapped my daughter up and hugged her for days. "This... I think I'll like this, Mom. So... Thank you." The frown on Taylor's face had turned into a wide, genuine smile, full of love and gratitude.

It was all I could do to try and return a similar expression, as I squeezed back on my daughter's hand. "Of course, Taylor. You're welcome." I undid my hand from hers, and shooed her away back toward the Wards. "Now go. Get to know your new team mates, okay?" With another grin and a nod, Taylor practically skipped back to where the other teenagers were, beginning to excitedly talk with the other kids; again, I noticed her shooting a particular type of look towards Chris, and again, I sighed, and supposed that it was better than Dennis, at the very least, even if that wasn't saying too horribly much.

As I left the room, though, I felt a wide array of emotions flood through and threaten to overtake me; by the time that I was securely in the privacy of the elevator, I then found myself both crying and laughing at the same exact time. God, but I was so happy that my daughter was in the Wards, that she was in the PRT, that she was with _me_, that Taylor was going to be a _superhero_, a superhero _like_ me, a superhero _with_ me! God, but I was so worried about the fact that my daughter was in the Wards, that she was in the PRT, that she was going to be a superhero, that I had put her into a position where she would have to fight villains, even if I would be there with her to help keep her safe. And God, but I felt so _guilty_, felt so guilty that I had caused the accident, that I had caused my daughter to trigger, and that I would be the cause of everything that would happen afterward; _God_, but I felt so _guilty_, felt so _guilty_ for being so _happy_ that I had caused the accident, _happy_ that I had caused my daughter to trigger, _happy_ that I had traumatized Taylor enough that she had developed powers, and I felt so _guilty_ that I was so selfishly _happy_ about all of that, all because everything that had happened meant that I could finally, _finally_ manage to meaningfully connect with my child. God, but I was the worst of the worst, wasn't I?


End file.
